Weighted, Measured and Priced
by Miss Mysty
Summary: Three-shot, sixth in the literary quotes series.  To celebrate the end of a cycle, Masamune brings Ritsu to the small town he temporarily lived in after Ritsu left.  But of course, there are plenty of characters to keep them on their toes.
1. Chapter 1

_I am the only child of parents who weighed, measured, and priced everything; for whom what could not be weighed, measured, and priced, had no existence.- Little Dorrit_

Weighed, Measured and Priced, Part 1

At the end of the February cycle, Masamune decided he and Ritsu needed to celebrate with a trip. So, he ended up dragging Ritsu with him to the small country town his mother's side of the family came from.

"I thought you weren't that close to your mother and father," Ritsu had said when Masamune suggested it.

"They won't be there," Masamune had answered, and that had been that.

Now, they were driving along the occasionally rough road into town, though Ritsu had fallen asleep almost immediately after setting off. Masamune couldn't necessarily blame him, given that even combined they wouldn't have had a decent amount of sleep. Masamune, however, had consumed significantly more caffeine.

As Masamune drove through the downtown area, he couldn't help but remember the months he'd spent there with his mother, working in his grandparents' sushi restaurant and actively applying to all the universities in Tokyo he could. He had been single-minded in his determination to get out of there and find Ritsu again. When he thought about that, his eyes shifted to Ritsu, still innocently sleeping in the shotgun seat beside him. If he hadn't been driving, he would have leaned over and kissed him awake.

When they finally got to his grandparents' place, he leaned over and brushed his lips against Ritsu's ear. The younger man jumped at the contact and Masamune said, "We're here."

Ritsu rose his eyebrows and looked out the window. They were still pretty much in the main part of town, so Ritsu found himself watching people walking around. Then he followed Masamune's gaze to a building that had some kind of shop on the first floor and what appeared to be an apartment on the second floor.

"…this is where they live?" he asked, getting out of the car. He closed the door and just stared up at the building, dreading his suspicions about their sleeping arrangements for the next few days.

"The apartment is two bedrooms," Masamune said, as if that made a difference to Ritsu. "What's the matter? It's not like sleeping in a bed with me is something new for you."

Ritsu's face turned completely red, and he turned away from Masamune in time for the door to the shop to open. His face softened and cooled down when he saw the older man in the doorway runs his eyes over them both. "Anko!" he called, turning back into the shop. "Masamune and his guest are here!"

"He actually brought his girlfriend?" came a woman's voice in the shop.

Masamune's grandfather glanced over them again and said, "In a manner of speaking, I suppose."

When the man stepped aside, a woman came running out. She was tall, taller than her husband, and she had an imposing air about her that made Ritsu shrink back in fear. She went for Masamune first, though, trapping him in what looked like a very crushing hug.

"Where's that girl of yours? Your grandfather and I have waited so long to see her that we were starting to think she doesn't exist!"

Masamune smiled, and when his grandmother finally let him go, he turned to Ritsu, who still looked terrified. "Grandma, Onodera Ritsu."

Masamune's grandmother blinked, and she walked around the car so she could get a better look at the man. Ritsu was determined to look Anko in the eye, but she was even taller than Masamune, so he had to actually crane his neck up, which made him feel significantly less sure of himself. Finally, though, he remembered his manners, so he bowed deeply. "It's good to meet you."

"Hmm," Anko said as she looked him over. She poked his chest first, as if confirming that he wasn't just an extremely flat-chested girl. Then she moved her hand up to the corners of his eyes. "You have such big eyes. How old are you?"

"Twenty-six?" It came out as a question without Ritsu meaning for it to. "I mean, um, twenty-six, ma'am. I work for the same magazine as Masamune."

Ritsu expected her to react to this information, so he nearly jumped out of his skin when she reached a hand down and poked at his ribs. "You're too skinny! Come in and eat; don't worry about your bags, Jiro will get them." She gave her husband a meaningful look, and he grumbled but complied as Anko led Ritsu and Masamune inside.

"A sushi restaurant?" Ritsu asked, glancing around. Masamune simply nodded, and Ritsu jumped in surprise when he looked over at one of the tables and saw a group of women staring at them. Masamune eyed them briefly before pulling Ritsu over to a table to sit down. Despite the fact that Anko had told Ritsu he needed to eat, she sat down with them instead of serving them while Jiro brought their things upstairs.

"I haven't heard from your mother in a while, of course," Anko said as if continuing a conversation from earlier.

Masamune averted his eyes. He wasn't even in the mood to take Ritsu's hand or sling an arm around his shoulders, but that may have been partly because of the women gawking at them both. The way he kept glancing at them, it seemed he knew them. "You know how my mother is. I haven't heard from her, either. Not even an invitation to visit for New Year's Eve."

"Well, it's in the past, I suppose!" Anko sounded infinitely more chipper as she stood up, finally seeming to realize that she had invited Ritsu to eat. "Let me at least get you both some tea."

Ritsu nodded his thanks before he glanced over at Masamune and realized something. "…Masamune, you didn't take off your driving glasses?"

"Oh?" Masamune blinked, then reached up and pulled off his glasses. He hadn't had time to think about that with his grandmother talking to him and pulling him inside.

More customers had come in, so after Anko dropped off their tea, she didn't continue with them. Jiro hadn't come back down after bringing Ritsu and Masamune's bags upstairs, so Anko was the only employee in the restaurant. This left Ritsu to look around and contemplate, though. "Your grandparents own this place?"

"Yep," Masamune said, staring over the top of his tea cup. "When my mother and I moved here temporarily, working as a waiter here was my first real job. It wasn't that bad." He glanced over at the bar where his grandmother was putting together some rolls with practiced precision. "Gave me plenty of time to read."

"Read."

"Of course. Not much else to do in this town. I got into my mother's old collection of shojo manga. They had some weird shit back then…"

"Your mother actually collected shojo manga?" Ritsu asked, raising his eyebrows.

"When I was younger she did," Masamune confirmed. "You know how it goes: some women collect trashy romance novels, my mother collected shojo manga. I suppose I have her to thank in part for my current position." He gave Ritsu a somewhat meaningful look, but before he could say any more, he turned around to the group of women who'd been watching the pair the entire time. "Yes?"

"Nothing, Takano-san!" one of them said, and they all giggled.

Ritsu eyed them warily before saying, "Do you know them?"

"Old classmates. I guess they decided to stay after graduation."

Ritsu didn't think that was quite all, but he still said, "If you say so."


	2. Chapter 2

Weighted, Measured and Priced, Part 2

"Masamune, do you remember how to make sushi?" Anko asked when Masamune wandered downstairs again. He and Ritsu had been settling into their room, but he'd made a quick escape as soon as he'd put his things away. He knew what would result from him and Ritsu being alone in a lockable room and for once, he thought better of it. They could always catch up later, after all.

"I haven't made sushi in years, but I probably remember," Masamune said, shrugging. Those women who'd been tittering over him earlier were still there, nursing cups of tea and probably gossiping amongst themselves. When they saw Masamune's grandmother beckon him over to the counter, though, they looked rather interested.

Therefore, the scene that Ritsu experienced when he finally came down from the second floor apartment was an interesting one. Masamune was expertly cutting and chopping ingredients to pile together into the seaweed wrap. He had his glasses on again, probably at his grandmother's insistence, and Ritsu would probably never admit it, but he looked rather good. He even twirled the knife once before cutting up the roll into bite-sized pieces.

"Hah, he says he hasn't done this in years," Anko said, rolling her eyes as the women clapped.

Masamune could only smile as he piled the sushi onto the plate and, without warning, turned to face Ritsu. Ritsu jumped in surprise as Masamune said, "Dinner is ready."

"Since when do you cook?" Ritsu asked, narrowing his eyes at the rolls suspiciously as, in the background, Masamune's admirers looked at him in a curious sort of way.

Masamune smirked when Ritsu finally took the dish and went to an unoccupied table. The restaurant wasn't that full, but there were certainly more people there for the dinner rush than there had been when they'd arrived about a half hour ago. Then again, when Ritsu had been looking around the downtown area as they drove through, he hadn't seen anything else that might have resembled a restaurant. Maybe that place was the only one in town.

"I need to wash up," Masamune said, ruffling Ritsu's hair as his boyfriend sat down at the table. "I'll be back."

Ritsu just nodded and sat down, glancing over at the pairs of chopsticks that had been placed beside him when he wasn't looking. He was about to take one out of its packaging and break it apart when he realized he was being watched. It was those women again, and they watched Ritsu as he slowly put down the set of chopsticks and just stared right back at them, not really sure what to say. Masamune had said they were old classmates of his but hadn't actually introduced them.

Finally, one of the women stood up and went to his table. She didn't even ask if she could sit down, she just did, right in the seat across from Ritsu. "So how do you know Takano-san?" she said.

"Ha?" Ritsu asked, blinking a few times in confusion. "We work together. He's the head editor for the magazine I work for."

He could see the relief in the woman's eyes instantaneously, as if what he had said cleared away every single one of her troubles. Ritsu briefly wished it was that easy to satisfy everyone in his life, but by then, he was pretty sure he knew what the women wanted from Masamune. He wasn't completely stupid after all. Masamune still wasn't back from washing, though, so he just picked his chopsticks back up and proceeded to dig in to the sushi his boyfriend had made.

xxx

The next morning, Ritsu woke up slightly confused. In his sleep-addled state he forgot where he was, other than that he was in a bed, naked from the waist down, but that Masamune wasn't with him. As he grumbled to himself and picked up his underwear and pajama pants from the floor, he shook his head and recalled that he was at Masamune's grandparents' house. Looking at the clock set into the wall, it was barely eight AM. Ritsu never got up that early when he didn't have to, mostly because his body liked to catch up on sleep whenever possible.

Masamune had told Ritsu that his grandparents' shop didn't open until lunch, but there was a lot of noise coming from downstairs never-the-less. Instead of just walking out in his pajamas, he changed into some comfortable clothes and went down to see. Masamune's grandfather was sitting there at the kitchen table, drinking coffee and reading a newspaper, and all he did was nod to Ritsu. Ritsu bowed respectfully before heading back for the stairs that lead down into the shop.

When Ritsu got down there, he saw a bunch of small children running around, with grown-ups socializing over cups of tea and bowls of rice. Outside the window, a somewhat late snowfall could be seen, obscuring the view so that Ritsu couldn't really see the street. He considered just going back upstairs and sharing the pot of coffee that Masamune's grandfather had made, but he was, of course, spotted.

"Apparently my grandma invites them over every weekend now," Masamune said, joining Ritsu at the foot of the stairs and lacing his fingers in with his. "We can go out and get something for breakfast if you want."

Ritsu glanced around the room to the people he assumed were Masamune's relatives. It only made sense that they'd be around, after all, since this was apparently his mother's hometown. When he nodded, Masamune went behind him and up the stairs, saying he'd get both their coats.

When they set out, however, walking right beside each other but keeping their hands stuffed in their pockets, they found themselves surrounded by Masamune's younger cousins. They were actually the sons and daughters of cousins, and only maybe two were old enough to have been around when Masamune was there in high school but certainly not old enough to have remembered him. However, they'd all been causing havoc in the shop, and the parents had finally gotten tired of their children and had jumped at the chance to get rid of them for at least a little while.

Ritsu, of course, wouldn't say anything, and Masamune had just shrugged. So the children had all been given money to get food that wasn't rice and headed out with their older cousin. At some point, though, the children had gotten distracted by the fact that there was enough snow on the ground to start playing in it, and so by the time they had walked maybe a hundred feet to the only convenience store in town, Masamune's cousins had started a full-scale snowball fight. When Ritsu turned around to look at all of them as Masamune opened the door to the convenience store, he was met with somewhere around five snowballs hitting him in the face.

"Just ignore them, Ritsu," Masamune said. There weren't a lot of people other than them up and about at that time, but there were enough, and they were all frowning and ducking out of the way as snowballs went flying. None of them seemed willing to tell them to stop or threaten to call their parents, though. Ritsu had a feeling that maybe this was a usual occurrence.

"I'm guessing you never did anything like this when you lived here before," Ritsu said. There was an electronic beeping as they both stepped in, and Masamune let the door fall shut behind him. The store was heated, and Ritsu was tempted to take off his scarf and gloves so he could enjoy it. It might also have been because he was soaking from all the snow balls that were thrown at him before he managed to get inside.

"Nope," Masamune said. He led the way to where they had all the prepared food. Apparently the store had been there when Masamune was, because he definitely knew his way around. "When I lived here I mostly went to school and stayed in the shop. And then college came, and I went straight back to Tokyo."

"Why were you so determined to go back, anyway?" Ritsu asked, not looking Masamune in the eye as they both considered the food before them.

"To look for you." Masamune said it while facing the breakfast sandwiches, but at that, Ritsu turned and stared at him like he had said something so off-the-wall that he couldn't believe it. Of course, it was Masamune, so he should've expected him to say something like that. "And this town is way too small. I was starting to go stir-crazy." And then he leaned down and kissed Ritsu on the forehead, smiling the entire time.

Just when Masamune pulled away from the blushing Ritsu, the door to the store opened and a woman that Ritsu recognized from the sushi restaurant the previous day came running in. The snowball fight was still going on outside, and the woman's hair was wet from the snow that had already managed to melt in it. She didn't look happy at her current position, though her eyes lit up as soon as they landed on Masamune.

"Takano-san!" she said, walking over to the pair. "Fancy seeing you here. I would've thought you'd stay at your grandparents' place like you used to."

"Ritsu and I were just getting breakfast," Masamune said, reaching a hand up and ruffling Ritsu's hair. Ritsu glared at him, because he knew Masamune had done it on purpose.

"Ritsu?"

Ritsu batted Masamune's hand away from his head and bowed. "I don't think we were properly introduced yesterday. My name is Onodera Ritsu."

"He calls you by your first name. How cute." The woman smiled and bowed, but she didn't give her name. "I didn't know coworkers could be so close." Then she turned to Masamune. "Are you going to be here all weekend, Takano-san?"

"Yes," Masamune said, nodding. He had moved his hand at that point to try to lace his fingers with Ritsu's, but Ritsu scowled at him and wouldn't allow it. "Although I had planned to spend the time with my grandparents."

"And your mother isn't here?"

"I haven't seen my mother for… quite a while."

At that point he was still trying to take a hold of Ritsu's hand, and Ritsu finally shouted, "Masamune!" and ripped his hand away. This got the woman's attention, and she took in Masamune's innocent look and Ritsu's completely red face.

"What?" He sounded like he had no idea he was doing anything wrong. Ritsu was finally distracted enough that Masamune was able to take his hand, and he lifted it up and kissed it before saying, "I think the snowball fight has moved on. It might be safe to go back."

"We haven't even gotten anything to eat yet," Ritsu protested, looking at the display cases and revolving cookers longingly despite himself.

"Then pick something out. I'm just going to get some coffee." He finally let go of Ritsu's hand and headed for the store's coffee machine.

Ritsu could feel the woman's gaze as he just picked something out, not really caring what he ate at that point. They followed him all the way to the register, and when Masamune slung an arm around his shoulders on the way out, he could feel the metaphorical lasers on the back of his neck.


	3. Chapter 3

Weighted, Measured and Priced, Part 3

It still got dark fairly early, being only February, and it didn't help that even when the snowstorm stopped, the thick, grey clouds that had produced it stayed behind as if daring anyone to say they thought it was over. So Ritsu and Masamune ended up just spending time at the counter in the restaurant. Not that Ritsu was complaining, of course; he couldn't remember the last time when he had almost literally nothing to do. Even his visits with his parents had seemed more like a chore than anything.

Masamune's admirers had been lurking in the shop for a few hours now, and Masamune himself had been roped into helping his grandmother make sushi again. Ritsu was left with sitting at the counter and watching his boyfriend as he worked, chopping and gathering and wrapping when needed. Ritsu would never admit it, but Masamune was good at making sushi. The admirers seemed to be torn between glaring at Ritsu, who Masamune kept smiling at between making rolls, and watching Masamune work. It was a different woman from the one they met at the convenience store who finally approached him, sitting down on a stool at the counter and smiling like they were good friends.

"How do you like our town?" she asked, catching Ritsu off-guard. He had, quite frankly, been expecting them to interrogate him. He almost felt like relaxing, if he hadn't been receiving looks from them the entire evening.

"It's nice," he said.

"Where are you from?"

"Uh, Tokyo? I live in the Bunkyo district."

"So the city."

"Yes." Ritsu shifted uncomfortably under the woman's gaze, feeling like there was more to this conversation than this small talk. "I grew up in the area."

"So how long have you known Takano-san?" And there it was.

Ritsu considered his answer carefully. He had already told the women that they were coworkers, and very well could have answered with that. Before he could make the decision, though, Masamune had finished with the sushi for the moment and sat down on his other side. Masamune just watched the people walk around the restaurant and eat like he hadn't even heard the conversation. Still, Ritsu ducked his head and said, "We went to school together. So, about eleven years I guess."

Immediately Masamune's eyes were on him, but he was getting a sidelong look. "If you don't count those three years you stalked me in the library."

"I was twelve!" Ritsu said, disregarding their current audience.

"And thirteen, fourteen and fifteen," Masamune said, shrugging. Then he smiled and tugged on Ritsu's arm, making Ritsu fall against his side. "You were a cute kid, though."

"Masamune," Ritsu said sternly, attempting to push him away, but it wasn't anywhere near working. Masamune was called back into the kitchen by his grandmother, though, and he planted a chaste kiss on Ritsu's cheek before getting up to see what his grandmother wanted.

"You've been together this entire time?"

Ritsu turned to see the woman who'd approached him. She had an unreadable expression on her face, and she was the only one watching him at that point; the others had snuck off to the kitchen so they could continue to watch Masamune work. Ritsu looked down at his lap, where he had his hands folded now Masamune didn't have a hold of them. "No."

"Then when?"

"Um, since August," Ritsu said. "We did date for a few months in high school, but it was… complicated." His expression was the definition of a paradox: he was smiling, but his eyes were as wide as those of a deer caught in the headlights.

Suddenly, Masamune came through. His face was carefully blank, but the way he was walking, it looked like he wanted to get away as soon as possible. Ritsu looked at him with concern and quickly followed, ignoring the women who were trying to tail him. Masamune had gone outside without putting on his shoes or grabbing his coat, so of course Ritsu was concerned.

He expected to see Masamune standing there with a cigarette hanging out of his mouth, but that wasn't the case. He was just standing there in his socks, having kicked off his slippers at the door, leaning against the side of the store and staring up at the sky. The clouds still hadn't cleared, so the view wasn't that much better than the one they saw every night in Tokyo. His face was still completely stoic, though, so Ritsu could only take a guess at what had happened.

"Masamune?" Ritsu rubbed his hands on his upper arms, cold since he hadn't picked up his jacket either. The fact that he had gone to the bottom of the stairs to put his shoes on was practically a miracle as well, if he had to admit it.

Ritsu had stopped walking when he was about three feet from Masamune. Masamune reached out for him, though, and Ritsu's cheeks colored but he walked over. If Masamune had asked, Ritsu would have assured him that the color was simply because of the cold. They were both outside in late February without coats, after all. He ended up back-to-front with Masamune, his boyfriends arms wrapped around his stomach and Masamune's nose buried in Ritsu's hair.

"What happened?" Ritsu finally managed to ask. He wouldn't admit something like just being there in Masamune's arms made him warmer, or that he was concerned.

"My mother called," Masamune murmured into his hair. "She does that every now and then, I'm told."

Ritsu had been slowly closing his eyes, comfortable despite the cold conditions around them, but at that he opened his eyes and twisted his head around to look at Masamune. The other man leaned down so they could be eye level. "Did you talk to her?"

"No," Masamune admitted, pulling Ritsu tighter against him. "My younger sister wanted to talk to her grandma. I didn't have much place there."

"You have a sister?"

"So I'm told," Masamune said, sounding not the least bit concerned about it. "My mother remarried and had another kid. I guess she's trying to do it right this time."

"You didn't come out that bad," Ritsu said, glad he didn't have to look his boyfriend in the eye as he said all this.

"Maybe not, but both my parents were too wrapped up in themselves to have much of a hand in that," Masamune said. Then he smirked. "I could've brought you in and had sex with you while one of them was home and they would've been none the wiser."

"Pervert," Ritsu said, breaking out of Masamune's grasp at last. He instantly felt a drop in temperature and started rubbing his arms again. "Can we go inside again? It's freezing out here."

Masamune was still smiling as he followed Ritsu back inside. "I can warm you up if you want."

Ritsu ignored him as he slipped off his shoes at the bottom of the stairs to the apartment.

Now that Masamune was, relatively, alone, he looked around the restaurant. The woman who'd been talking to Ritsu was left sitting at the counter, and her friends were nowhere to be found. He sighed and walked back up to the counter, sat down on a stool, and proceeded to remove his socks. They had been soaked through from standing out in the snow even just those few minutes, and he looked at them in disdain.

"So you um. Knew him before you came here then?" the woman asked. Masamune gave her a sidelong glance before rolling his socks together. "Well, you were only here for maybe five months? I realize that was a short time, but you left an impression on us." She waved her hand vaguely at the door, even though the women she'd been seen with those past two days were nowhere to be found.

"I seemed to do that when I was younger." Masamune's eyes just kind of drooped as he looked at nothing in particular. "However, the whims of a few women I didn't even remember the names of aren't going to change my feelings about him."

"You love him."

"I've loved him for eleven years," Masamune admitted, finally standing up from his stool. He slipped his feet back into his slippers and tossed the wet ball of socks between his hands. He didn't elaborate, instead simply going up the stairs to find Ritsu again. He felt the overwhelming urge to just hold him at that moment.

xxx

The next morning they had to set off early if they wanted to get to Tokyo at any reasonable hour, plus the cycle would be starting over the next day so they needed to prepare. Ritsu had been half asleep when Masamune's grandparents said goodbye to them and Masamune's grandmother had piled boxes of something she didn't identify into Masamune's car when they were piling their travel bags in it. It was only when they left the island of Shikoku and were crossing one of the expressways across the water to the main island that Ritsu was awake enough to wonder what they were bringing home with them.

"Food," Masamune said, his eyes briefly following the supports on the bridge as they zipped by. "Grandma seems to think that we'll both eat better if she just tells us to."

Ritsu narrowed his eyes at the boxes behind him. "It's not sushi is it?"

"…no," Masamune said. "Why, did you want it to be?"

"It's not like we can't get sushi on every corner back home," Ritsu said, turning back around and staring out the window. The heat still hadn't kicked in, so he found himself burying his head up to his nose behind his scarf. He did briefly glance at Masamune, though, but looked away as soon as he saw his boyfriend was smiling. "What are you smiling about?"

"I'll make us some sushi when we get home," Masamune said.

"Like I want sushi again!" Ritsu said. "Did you eat that every day when you lived here?"

Masamune just smiled and brought his disposable coffee cup to his lips, putting his eyes back on the road. Eventually, Ritsu fell asleep, and Masamune couldn't help but put his coffee down and reach over to ruffle his hair.


End file.
